The Open Badge standard is out there and can be adopted by anyone. The standard (being a standard) is de-centralised. However, the tools that comply with the standard often aren’t. And why should they be? The norm in platforms is to create a sticky one. Get people in, and keep people in.
There’s a collective hunch amongst a bunch of people I know and like (a number were part of the Mozilla Open Badges team) that Blockchain technology (made famous by Bitcoin) could provide a decentralised architecture for Open Badges.
If none of that makes any sense to you, worry ye not. But if you’re interested in why de-centralising credentials might make a difference, the Starfish and the Spider might prove a prudent read…